http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080724/ap_on_re_au_an/new_zealand_bizarre_names

New Zealand officials frown on parents giving their kids bizarre names. The above story talks about a nine-year-old whose legal first name was Talula Does the Hula. During a custody battle, the judge made her a ward of the state and changed her name.

Despite the policy of rejecting "weird" names, the names "Violence" and "Number 16 Bus Shelter" have been permitted by New Zealand registration officials. The latter gives me images of some hippies explaining the name, "that's where our lovechild was conceived, dude!"

This story brings up the questions, what is an "odd" name to give a child? Should the government define what names are proper? What if I were a parent in New Zealand and wanted to name my kid "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?"

The government should have no control over the names people give their children.

Since many of the specifics of the Talula does the Hula case are being withheld by the court to protect the family's privacy, I wonder if things might have been different had the parents, who were from Hawaii, made the case that the child's odd name was intended as an expression of pride in their heritage? I don't see why the kid had to nickname herself "K," instead of just going by the first part of her name, "Talula."

I have some childhood friends who now live in Norway (they married Norweigen men) and Norway has the same policy of the government having to approve the childs name.

Yeah its silly. But think of all the girls in this country who are given "stripper" names by there white trash over the hill stripper mothers?